Rugged fight ends in draw
Result tainted by bizarre scorecard
LAS VEGAS — One great fight, one lousy scorecard.
Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin did their part Saturday night to make their middleweight showdown a memorable one, putting on the kind of big drama show both had promised. They traded big shots and battled for 12 rounds, and when it was over they leaped into the arms of their corner men, both certain they had won.
That the judges ruled it a draw wasn’t out of line. It was that kind of fight, a close, tense bout that could have gone either way.
Unfortunately, one judge somehow had Alvarez winning all but two rounds. The 118-110 margin in favor of Alvarez by Adalaide Byrd was so stunningly off that it dominated the talk at a post-fight news conference that otherwise would have focused on one of the better fights of the year.
Once again, boxing can’t seem to get out of its own way.
Perhaps overlooked by those complaining about the score is that if Byrd had Alvarez winning by a closer margin, say 115-113, the fight would still be a draw and no one would be talking about the judges. It wasn’t that she necessarily got the winner wrong, but by too big of a margin.
The other two judges saw the fight that most at ringside thought they were watching, a bruising affair that appeared to be going Golovkin’s way until Alvarez rallied to take the last three rounds on all three scorecards.
One favored Golovkin 115-113, while the other had it 114-114. The Associated Press also scored it 114-114.
Inevitably, the talk soon turned to a possible rematch.
Alvarez had a rematch clause in his contract, and both he and promotoer Oscar De La Hoya said he would execute it. HBO boxing chief Peter Nelson said he thought a second fight would do even better than the first.